Wildfires or wildland fires are an annual occurrence in arid or semiarid regions of the United States, such as southern California and Colorado. Wildland fires are often ignited by natural phenomena, such as lightning storms, or are caused by human negligence. Once a wildland fire is ignited, it may consume substantial acreage which can include valuable residential or commercial structures and associated landscaping.
Often, a relatively small wildland fire can be contained by local authorities before significant damage to structures or landscaping occurs. However, in the case of a large, fast moving, and uncontained wildland fire, firefighting authorities may be unable to contain the progress of the wildland fire before significant property damage occurs. In such an instance, it would be extremely foolhardy for a property owner to attempt to manually apply fire retardant or fire suppressant to his or her structures or landscape. The risk of injury or death is simply too great to justify manual fire suppression efforts.
Several systems for home and property protection from wildland fires are known. Typically, the prior art systems are more or less automated, and feature the application of a fire retardant or suppressant, such as water or a chemical designed for fire control, to structures and landscape as a wildland fire approaches. The prior art systems are manually actuated or triggered by various types of fire sensors and detectors. The prior art systems all feature dedicated fire sensors, spray heads, sprinklers, or other application nozzles of various configurations implemented to direct fire control fluids toward structures and landscape features.
The prior art automated fire suppression systems are designed to fulfill a single purpose. These systems protect real property from approaching wildland fires by applying fire retardant or suppression fluids. The prior art systems can be rather complex, costly, and maintenance intensive. Thus, a substantial disadvantage of the prior art systems is the large investment a property owner must make in an automated system which hopefully will never be used. For many property owners, the investment in a single purpose system is too large to justify the potential benefit of the protection of landscaping and structures in the event of a wildland fire.
Wildland fires are naturally more common in arid and semiarid regions of the country. These same regions, for example, the west and southwest portions of the United States, are also the regions where landscape irrigation is most necessary if a well-planted and thriving landscape is to be maintained through the summer and fall months. An appropriate automated irrigation system is also a substantial investment made by many property owners in arid and semiarid regions of the country. Prior art exterior landscape and structure fire suppression systems and prior art irrigation systems are each relatively complex and potentially expensive systems, each of which is directed toward a single purpose.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above. The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification.